Flight1 Ultimate Super 80 for FS2004

By Andrew Herd (16 June 2005)

he MD-80 series not only has a distinguished inheritance, but can claim membership of the longest running airliner family development; its great-great-great grandpa being the DC-9-10 of the early nineteen-sixties. The DC-9 was developed as a short range partner for the DC-8 and featured rear-mounted engines as was the fashion of the time. The type was certified late in '65 and proved such a winner that McDonnell Douglas began to look at higher capacity versions, ultimately leading to the 139 seat DC-9-50, which carried nearly fifty more passengers than could be squeezed into the original hull. By the early seventies, however, the noisy, gas-guzzling engines like the early JT8Ds that powered the DC-9 were more of a liability than an asset, so McDonnell Douglas began trials with the higher by-pass ratio JT8D-200 series, which was quieter, more efficient and met the crucial Stage 3 noise criteria, which threatened to drive the DC-9 out of business and into the scrapyard. The new development was associated with so many changes in the wing and fuselage that McDonnell Douglas ended up renaming the type, although confusingly they only did this after it had been operation for three years - the initial designation DC-9-80 being changed to MD-80, hence the 'Super 80' title of this addon.

MD-80 was a generic title that covered a clutch of sub-types. The earliest was the MD-81; which was given more powerful engines to become the MD-82; this in turn being followed by the longer range and more fuel-efficient MD-83; the MD-87, which went against the trend by being a smaller capacity feeder-liner, but featuring the first glass cockpit to be fitted to any aircraft in the range; and the MD-88, which had the capacity of the MD-82 and a glass cockpit like the MD-87. The MD-90 was the largest member of the family, seating nearly twice the number of passengers that the DC-9-10 had, and being powered by a pair of International Aero Engines V2525s, which allows it to boast the largest pair of engines ever rear-mounted on an airliner. To see one is to remember it for ever, because those mothers are big.

The family is no longer in production today, because when Boeing and MD merged in 1997, the new board cancelled further development of both the MD-80 and the MD-90, although their bloodline was continued in the Boeing 717, which McDonnell Douglas had announced at the 1991 Paris airshow and filled a space in Boeing's line-up, which lacked a short-range, high cycle feeder liner.

Flight1 have a fat catalog of products, some of which they have developed in-house, some of which they only market, and some, like the Super 80, developed in partnership with other developers. In this case, Flight1's partner is CoolSky, a Norwegian outfit which would be entirely new to me were not the name Espen Øijordsbakken prominent on their website - Espen is rightly famous for his development of a Fokker 50 panel that counts as one of the high points of FS freeware packaging. I'll admit to being indifferent to the idea of reviewing another MD-80 addon until I saw the Øijordsbakken name, at which point my attitude completely changed, because we haven't seen anything from him for a while and I was beginning to wonder if his talents had been lost to flight simulation.

The Super 80 faces competition, because we already have a number of payware addons from the DC-9/MD-80 family, not least Flight1's own 'Iron Knuckles' DC-9, which we reviewed four years ago. We also have Lago's more recent Maddog 2004, an MD-80 sim that Lago were still in the process of patching when we last reviewed it, but which was showing considerable promise - technically, the 'Super 80' addon goes head to head against this. Almost all complex airliners sims require at least one patch, so we waited until Flight1 released SP1 for the Super 80 before doing this review; prior to this, although the flight model and panel operation exhibited a few funnies, the addon was reasonably stable. So many enhancements have been included in the patch, that even if you are happy with the existing version sim, it is well worth downloading service pack 1, which is 41 Mb, not least because it includes a totally new freighter version of the plane.

The product I reviewed was supplied in a DVD-style box. System requirements are quoted as a 1.6 Ghz Pentium with 512 Mb of RAM and a 128 Mb video card. Low-end sound cards are not recommended as otherwise some of the sounds may not work properly and the addon has only been tested with Windows XP - so the developers do not guarantee it will work with other versions of Microsoft Windows. Needless to say, the package will only run on FS2004. Having tested the addon, while I am sure it will run on a 1.6 Ghz system, faster would be better and I suspect that like most modern sims, an unconstrained simming experience will only be possible on a 3.0 Ghz system or faster, unless you plan to avoid complex airports and to do all your approaches in clear weather. No hard disk requirements are quoted on the Flight1 website, but the installation on my machine occupied roughly 140 Mb.

Checking out the start menu after the installation, I found a new program group, which contained links to Flight1's Text-o-Matic livery installation tool and the documentation, which (with the patch installed) is split between a 291 page Aircraft Operating Manual that contains all the check lists and many valuable graphics showing where instruments mentioned in the accompanying text can be found (other developers take note, as finding where stuff is can be the greatest challenge facing new users of a complex sim); and a 29 page User Manual, which describes the operation of the simulation. The latter is compulsory reading as a unique feature of the addon is the training software that has been integrated with it; in an era when many complex sims are being released without any form of tutorial whatsoever, it is a refreshing change to find a developer that has spared a thought for the first time user who finds him or herself confronted with a realistic airliner panel and systems.

The first sign that there is something different about this sim will hit you when you load the Super 80 for the first time, as you will be confronted with the 'Get Started Now' window. This is a one-time view, but it tells you how to select which mode you want to run the addon in, the choices ranging from turn and burn using the 'automatic aircraft configuration' mode, to the virtual hand-holding offered by the 'Super 80 training center'. Selecting modes is accomplished using a drop-down panel that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over a small icon at the top-left of the main panel view - this same panel giving quick access to all the other cockpit views. It is difficult to underestimate just how powerful the training center is, because not only does it provide a unique opportunity to be walked through virtually every procedure needed to start and fly the sim; it can be used to pop up check lists, which can be checked through with the mouse and where appropriate trigger responses from the First Officer. Just about the only comparable product I can think of is FS2Crew, which is available as an addon for selected FS airliners, but this has to be bought as a separate package in addition to each airliner it is needed for. By comparison the Super 80 help center is integrated with the product and as a result of this can offer a much wider range of functionality, including the ability to request pushback and startup, fuel and load the plane, set the Super 80 up for almost any state of flight and even to print a departure plan using the 'despatch center'. All in all, the support features within this part of the sim justify a gold AAA for the product on their own, as there is nothing else like it for the money, although one area in which it could be improved would be if the cockpit drop down worked in pause mode, as simmers who want to automatically reconfigure the addon for a different phase of flight are forced to fly with one hand and mouse through the despatch center with the other. The training center isn't quite good enough to teach you to how to use the addon without reading the manuals at all, but it gets close and it would be great to see more like it - Flight1 rightly call the Super 80 a 'highly advanced release', but the phrase 'landmark product' springs to mind as well.

With SP1 installed, the Super 80 comes in two versions, identical other than the fact that one includes a virtual cockpit (VC) and one does not - if your system is toward the 1.6 Ghz end of the range, I would recommend using the 'no VC' version. Both versions come with seven liveries, for Spanair, Alitalia, Scandinavian, Continental, Spirit, PSA and Airborne Express. The visual model is a Terry Gaff design and doesn't disappoint, with all the usual detail, although for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to open the exits, the usual shift key approach doing nothing except trigger an announcement that doors were opening when they were not. The flaps are well animated, as is all the other stuff you would expect, the only possible criticism being the way the spoilers snap open, but this is small print stuff. All the liveries are well done, with some nicely understated weathering in places, for example the grime under the windows along the fuselage, which gets left there when the planes have to stand any length of time in airports in places like the UK.

As you can see from the screenshots, the visual model is good enough to satisfy all but the most critical eyes, although Terry hasn't gone overboard and there isn't much to see inside the gear wells and parts of the airframe that only reviewers look. The upside is that the frame rates aren't at all bad and I didn't run into trouble even with PhotoShop and Dreamweaver running at the same time as FS2004 - but running the 'VC' model into a complex airport in heavy weather with 100% AI and all the graphics options maxed will challenge all but the fastest machines, as is always the case for complex airliner addons. The tests I did showed the expected slow-down into the low teens when taxiing the VC version on the taxiways of detailed airports in this kind of configuration, using a 3.0 Ghz Pentium with 4 gigs of RAM, while I got rates in the upper teens using the no-VC version. Frankly I wouldn't expect any different as this is the benchmark that most developers seem to aim for; the only way to get higher rates being to leave something out.

I'll confess that the 2D panel was something of a disappointment at first sight, because although all the graphics and legends stay crisp right up to 1600 x 1200, there is noticeable banding of the color in some areas, as will become obvious if you examine the large versions of the screenshots - but after I had used the addon for a while, I quickly forgave it, because the artwork is extremely appealing and restful on the eye, which is the effect the designers at McDonnell Douglas had when they hit on that particular shade of blue. The editing has been done to a high standard and while some stepping is evident, there are no orphan pixels and the gauges are as sharp as sharp can be. Use it for a while and it is possible to forget that you are sitting in front of a PC; and you will, because once you get the addon to the threshold, you are going to be so busy that total immersion will be a poor description of your situation - planes of this era lacked the ergonomics we take for granted in modern cockpits, while the pilots were simultaneously left to deal with most of the same procedures.

One of the first signs that we are not in Kansas anymore is the navigation system, which is an authentic Litton LTN-311 Omega/VLF, fondly known as the ONS to anyone who found themselves having to use it. The Omega system laid down a worldwide net of very low frequency signals which could be picked up by specially designed sets, which could then be used to calculate the aircraft's present position in relation to a known starting point. System setup therefore involved typing in the lat and long for the departure airport and after that, the ONS picked up signals which were bounced around the globe between the surface and the ionosphere. Needless to say, the Omega VLF wave system isn't simulated in FS2004, so the addon's ONS must use a variant of Flight Simulator's GPS system, but nonetheless it is extremely well implemented and just about the only missing function is the hold feature. One of the challenges of the Super 80 package is that you have to get your head around the ONS, because the system is used to program in flight plans in conjunction with the ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system). I told you this package was different.

Although all the subpanels can be opened via the view drop down; hotspots can be used to do the same thing, so once you have learned the location of these, you can save a mouse click by opening the subpanels direct. One of the most useful hotspots is in the center of the ADI, which brings up a captain's eye view of the panel, suitable for takeoffs and landings.

The VC is fully active, which means you can do anything with it that you can in the 2D cockpit, the one difference being that the drop down menu isn't available - however, it is possible to fly the Super 80 entirely from this mode. Just about every single system that is worth modelling has been included in this simulation, right down to virtual air conditioning, which sadly didn't make my office feel any cooler once I had figured out how to get it running. Despite the array of steam gauges laid out in front of you, the plethora of systems that have to be managed make flying the Super 80 sim an extremely complicated and absorbing experience, not least because the navigational system is so different to anything else that Airbus and Boeing jocks are likely to have encountered. Although a quick glance at the shots doesn't reveal any obvious differences from the present generation of planes other than the type of instruments involved, in practice, working the ONS/ACARS, fuel and engine management systems is a step into a different world and it will take many hours of enjoyable practice before even experienced simmers will be able to work the system instinctively. The greatest appeal of this sim lies in the fact that inexperienced simmers can also get to grips with operating the systems in the shortest possible time thanks to the training center and although I think newbies will find the transition from something like the default Baron to the Flight1 Super 80 a little daunting, a simmer who has managed to get his or her head around the default airliners should be able to get up and running reasonably quickly and the package would make an ideal first step into the exciting world of complex airliners addons. The only problem is that after you have used it a while, modern jets will feel like the anodyne lumps of metal they are (-:

The flight model is as good as the panels are, the Super 80 being a member of the select group of FS addon planes that fly realistically off the runway instead of springing into the air as if gravity had decided to work the wrong way around. You can't realistically expect a software simulator to give you the 'feel' of a big jet, but this one gets about as close as any I have had the privelege to try and it doesn't commit any of the usual crimes, like the exaggerated slipping that is a feature of so many flight models. Holding the nose up and chopping the power led to a high rate of descent with the nose remaining high until I released the back pressure; in a real MD-80 the nose does fall in this situation, but with the flight model adjusted this way around, approaches are much more realistic, because all jets have to be flown on to the runway and trying to execute a Cessna-style glide approach will result in a thrilling rate of sink and an undershoot as the airspeed bleeds off, so I don't have any problem with this choice. And no, you can't spin it (-:

The sound set is very acceptable without any noticeable cycling and complements the rest of what can only be described as a very solid package. With service pack 1 applied, the Super 80 doesn't have any serious bugs, the only problems I encountered being an occasional tendency for the drop down menu to load behind the main panel, which can be got around by using the hot spots; and one crash to desktop that probably only occurred because I had loaded the aircraft about four dozen times and horsed through every available panel view while running three other apps simultaneously - so I am happy about its stability.

Verdict? Outstanding. Welcome back Espen, we would like to see more of this quality of work from you. There are so many planes from this era that flight simulation developers have forgotten and which would be serious fun were they released with versions of the training center included. I have banged the drum for a high quality payware Constellation in the past, but there are so many other possibilities, starting with a 'Freight Dog' version of the Fokker 50 that Espen cut his teeth on as freeware so long ago. Just go out and buy the Super 80 - I can't think of a better investment to make to while away the months until FSX arrives and when it does, you might just find you like this old plane so much you want to stay with FS2004 until the patch arrives (-: